What are God’s plans?

A young woman was suffering from a serious attack of appendicitis. She hated doctors and tried all kinds of physical therapy, acupuncture, pills etc. until her husband forced her to see a doctor.

She was in a lot of pain, but protested the idea of an operation. Shen then said to the doctor, “When God gave people an appendix, there must have been a reason for putting it in our bodies?”

“Oh, yes,” replied the doctor. “God gave you that appendix so I could put my kid through college.”

Why is it that we tend to believe that God has a reason for everything, even if that reason is not obvious to us? Some people never give up trying to figure out God’s plans and reach conclusions — like God has no plan; God has no control; or simply that there is no God!

Most non-believers in God come to this from their inability to accept the fact that God allows evil to exist in the world. It is because God allows those He has created to have free will and choices, so evil does exist. Don’t ignore the good we see in our world, that far outweighs the evil. Also, don’t waste time trying to figure out God. He is a mystery not to be solved in this life.

Our readings this week, in particular, both the Book of Wisdom and the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds, give us one way to understand the problem of pain and evil. It is that God is patient while waiting and urging the evil doers to change their ways.

We dare to pray in Psalm 86, “Lord, you are good and forgiving.” God’s lenience and mercy are extolled and give us good ground for hope! With God’s patience, St. Paul tells us in Romans we can rise and shine like the sun, even as part of a field of weeds or as seemingly insignificant as a tiny mustard seed!

Patience with God, self and others to let the seeds grow together until harvest, and then to move with hope in bringing in the best and disposing of the evil or the bad. Note and remember that only a powerful, mighty and allloving God can show patience, lenience, mercy and forgiveness.

We see examples among all people — people who are insecure in their authority and power tend to act cruelly and vindictively. Afraid of their own weaknesses, they feel they must assert force.

People who are secure in their authority can act with sympathy, lenience, mercy and forgiveness, because they have confidence in their own stature to be patient, loving and merciful at all times. They realize that growth implies change!

Humans have a whole lifetime to grow and produce a better crop than before, and there is hope, even for the most wicked of weeds. The challenge is not to waste time trying to figure out God’s plans, but to have the faith, hope and love for God and others.

One needs to realize at the end of time, the harvest will be brought in by God, and He will separate the good from the evil. God’s plans are still unfolding, after all these years of creation and He is still willing to walk with us and invite us to conversion and find the lost.

To be aware of God’s presence and in the words of Mark Twain live with the patient fact: “None of us can be as great as God, but any of us can be as good!” We need to realize we cannot repeat our beginning, but we can always work for a better ending.

Msgr. Robert F. Tucker, St. Louis de Montfort Parish, Litchfield